


Crimson Hours

by corruptsjns



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternative Universe - Kingdom, Angst, Bottom Loki (Marvel), Jealousy, Love/Hate, M/M, Smut
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2020-06-15
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:35:27
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,513
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24722410
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/corruptsjns/pseuds/corruptsjns
Summary: Loki grew up on tales about the Asgardians, how his kind was only made to serve and obey them but he never got to live that reality, sheltered from the city through the farm house his family lived in. That all changed when Asgard declared war on Jotunheim once again but this time the savage leading their troops was Thor - crown prince, son of Odin. He made sure to ravage every inch of Jotunheim.
Relationships: Loki/Thor (Marvel)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 53





	1. Possibility

"Loki" Maja exclaimed loudly, waking the sleeping boy up from his sweetest dreams in which he had been quite literally on top of clouds. All of them gone as soon as he heard her shrill voice. 

The boy groaned pulling the pillow over his head and hoping she would just disappear if he ignored her for long enough. "You better have a good reason you rat" he finally rumbled. 

"Mom said that you need to get some water from the waterfalls, she's making Teurnam today" the girl replied in a rather enthusiastic tone. She loved their mothers famous soup, nearly as much as Loki dreaded it. The problem was not its taste or the rich herbs that mother put inside, no, the problem for Loki personally was how much of a pain in the ass it was to prepare that soup. 

"Can't she just use regular fucking water for once?" Loki hissed and his sister grabbed whatever object was standing on top of the shelf right next to the door to throw it on Loki. 

"Language!" she warned, "I'm waiting downstairs. You've got five minutes." 

With several grumbles the black haired boy forced himself out of his bed. He spared a quick glance into the mirror as he dressed himself, the robes he put around his waist hanging from his hips elegantly, despite their low value. Loki knew that he was quite the eye-catcher, whether it be men or women that stole some glances at his figure. He brushed his vanity off by putting on the most humiliating pair of boots that ever existed. The way to the waterfalls was muddy usually, so these were the right equipment, although not very fashionable. 

"Mom!" Loki yelled as he climbed down the stairs after washing his face in the bathroom. "Why can't Maja get the water?" 

His mother, already busy in the kitchen, chuckled as her son joined her. "Because Maja will be busy too, the herbs in the garden don't harvest themselves. Now, now. Where is my kiss." 

Upon her reminder Loki placed a soft peck on her cheek from behind the counter that he leaned over. "Fine ma, but next time Maja gets the water…" he trailed, knowing that would never happen but still demanding it.

"Of course Loki" his mother gave him a gentle smile, "don't forget … the _thing_." 

Although it was rather uncomfortable to speak about it, his mother always made him carry his fathers old knife with him, even when Loki had never needed it in twenty years of living. His mom wouldn't let him step outside the confines of their home without the knife that clearly brought painful memories of her perished husband. 

"Yeah, gotta make sure I have the means to fight the rabbits that might attack me" Loki mumbled and rolled his eyes. 

On his way out, he held his knife tightly. It was his lucky charm in a way and the only thing his father had left him, even if it was of no use. 

*** 

The woods were calm and silent, the weather was warm and bright. It was a good day to get lost in the forest and wander around for hours, which is something Loki used to do as a child, but today he really just wanted to see the waterfalls in time. If the weather was nice here he could only imagine how beautiful the scenery would be there. 

Despite the tiring way, going to the waterfalls always paid off. It was truly a breathtaking place with a whole lot of memories tied to it. There are even some memories of Loki and his father, together with Maja and Mother, sitting in the grass, their feet in the deep blue water - they were all just precious memories now but still it happened. Sometimes that is all you are left with. 

Humming a melody Loki tried to count how many birds were chirping along with him and he stopped when he got to somewhere around thirteen. He only noticed how much time was passing when he started to smell the scent of water mixing with grass - meaning that the waterfall and the little lake beneath it must be close. Although he did notice something odd this time... the path contained a trail of footsteps. Usually no one ever stepped on these grounds since not many people lived nearby and most of them didn't know that the waterfalls existed. 

An odd feeling crept up Loki's spine but he tried to not let suspicion and internal worry get the best of him. 

When he could see the path finally end and the sound of water clashing with the rocks get louder and louder he walked in anticipation, hand around his knife. Better safe than sorry.

To his surprise however, no one was there. Not a single soul as usually. He must have been a little paranoid, perhaps someone just got lost for once. Loki inhaled the clean air and started filling the empty bottles with the precious water his mother insisted on, whenever she made her soup. According to his mother this waterfall had been blessed by witches, a long time ago, because it had helped them hide from the enemies that were chasing them, though Loki wasn't so sure about the factuality of this tale. He merely had hear his mother tell Maja these stories. 

As the last bottle of three, he had strapped on the belt around his waist, was nearly full something unexpected happened. 

In a matter of seconds, the sky that was painted in a bright blue, began to grow dark and gloomy. It was only a second before thunder erupted, so loud that it nearly deafened Loki. Startled by the noise and the pain of it all, Loki dropped the last bottle as he jolted around, hands on his ears and tried to comprehend what just happened. There was still no one around him however, but the skies roared.

This was not a force of nature, Loki could tell. 

Something unnatural was happening. Something he'd never seen before, but heard of a lot.

His mind didn't get a chance to process anything, but his feet knew what to do. 

Loki started running as fast as he could, so fast that it knocked the air out of his lungs and a sharp pain spread in his chest. 

If what he feared was true, then someone nearby was in big trouble and considering that the only people around here was him and his family, he jolted away. Thunder of this hue and intensity was not something native to Jotunheim, but it was very infamously known, as the gift a selected few of the Asgardians possessed - or at least that's what the tales told. The Asgardians had been in Jotunheim for centuries now, they never quite managed to assimilate the population of his planet, but their authority was beyond imagination. Loki's father used to tell them, that in the city where most of them resided, no one could even mumble a word of their true heritage. They were made to call themselves Asgardians. 

_Maja. Mother_. The only thoughts running around in Loki's mind, were two words and they made him somehow run even faster. The thundering above him never stopped and it had become so dark by the time Loki passed the many birds he had seen on his way to the waterfalls, that it was hard to see. 

All of this was the reason, why they had been living away from the populated cities. Here, they were as free as they desired to be. If anything happened to his mother or sister, Loki didn't know what he would do. What would he do? There wouldn't be a single thing left he could hold onto. If they were in danger right now, he needed to be there as soon as possible.

It was the unfortunate dimness of the forest, that made Loki miss the stone in his path, trip and fall, head colliding with the bumpy ground. He groaned trying to straighten himself again and a quick touch on his forehead revealed blood on his fingers. He tried to run or at least walk again but before he could take another step, his vision darkened completely. 

***

When Loki woke up again, an instant pang of headache spasmed through his body. It had stopped thundering but it was now raining he noticed, as the remaining memories started to dawn on him. He was soaked completely from head to toe and didn't know how long he'd been laying here knocked out but he remembered suddenly, that he needed to get home. He could feel that something was going on. 

"Mother..." he whispered under his breath and got up, limping down the narrow path through the muddy woods.

He was glad, that his knife was still with him. It was the only valuable thing that he had and if someone had passed him bye, the would have surely plundered him of his belongings. 

Helping himself with the trees that he leaned against to not fall again, because he was pretty sure he was suffering a concussion, Loki somehow magically and truly extraordinarily managed to exit the woods. Finally he saw his house in the distance. 

He hurried with the last of strength he had left and started walking as fast he could. Loki could see something on the ground, but he couldn't quite make out what it was. The closer he got, the more he saw. 

All the color left his body. 

It was a body. 

Right next to their garden, right in front of his beloved house lay none other than his mother.

Around her several strange objects that he started to understand were the utensils in the kitchen. She had been dragged out of the house it seemed. He had been too late, Loki had failed the one thing he tried to do. He had been too late, god knows what had happened here. God knows what was happening everywhere. He couldn't make out the scale of what was happening, but he could feel that whatever this was, was big. 

"No.. this can't be happening" Loki gasped out, which quickly turned into horrified screams "no! No! Mother!" 

He finally reached her and let his body fall to the ground, next to her. "Mother! Mother!" He shook her body, but it was much in vain. She wouldn't respond nor move a finger. Loki put his hands on each side of her face, begging her to give a sign of life but she wouldn't. Putting his head on her chest, he tried to search for a heartbeat somewhere under her ribs, but his ears caught nothing of the kind. 

"Mother no…" Loki was weeping desperately above her, shaking her and trying to understand what had happened to her but he couldn't stay any longer he realized, because he needed to find Maja. A glimmer of hope lit up in his chest. Perhaps she was here, perhaps she would tell him that all of this was just a nightmare and he needed to get some water from the waterfalls. 

"Maja.." he crawled towards the house, still dizzy but not daring to faint again - not now. Not before he found her. "Maja!" he screamed and ran towards the house, going upstairs and entering every single room he knew existed. Searching for her, everywhere Loki quickly realized that his house had been trashed, everything was either knocked over or emptied - meaning someone had been here and whoever that had been, was now gone. Together with his sister apparently, because she was nowhere to be found. She wasn't in here. 

Whoever had been here… whoever had killed his mother, had taken his sister. 

Loki ran back outside panicking, uncoordinated. He didn't even know what he was doing right now, perhaps he was just running in circles, a deer caught in the headlights - all he wanted to was to find Maja. His mother, he needed to get his mother. Maybe his mother just needed another shake, another kiss, maybe she would get up if he tried hard enough. Wasn't she the one that had claimed for many years that she was a witch - maybe it was more than just a joke, maybe she would get up - maybe…- 

As soon as Loki stood on the front porch again, he was met with more than just his mother's lifeless body. 

He was met with five Asgardian soldiers aligned in front of him, a smug smile on all of their faces. 

"I thought the lady said, it was only her and the girl living here" a man in their midst spoke, bemusement in his voice. 

"So the fool of a woman," another one of the soldiers answered "lied to us."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading hope i made you interested in this story. I've got a long journey planned, hope not to disappoint anyone!! comments and feedback would make me extremely happy!!


	2. Where are you

The soldiers had wasted no time to put Loki on a leash, tying his small wrists together as tightly as the flesh and bones allowed and taped his mouth shut. It wouldn't take long for them to reach the base of the camps, the Asgardians had set up and report the situation.

Of course in their report, the soldiers intended to leave out the parts in which they slaughtered the mother of the boy, no one needed to know that. Instead they would tell their supervisors that they had simply found the boy in the middle of the woods along with the girl, who must already be on their way to Asgard. Her screams and cries still echoed in the back of their minds and to them, it was glorious that they had the power to make people sing whatever tunes they desired. 

As beautiful as war was to the soldiers, the crown prince wanted to follow his laughable moral compass which they personally deemed pathetic. They were at war after all, and in war there was no place or any time for morals and despite being convinced of this, they didn't want to get in trouble with the man. So they needed to cover up their heinous crimes and they had been quite successful at that for a long time now.

It was a good deal, this way they could live their brutal fantasies and not get in trouble with the upper hand. 

Loki could see right through these men and all of their intentions. They were empty shells that merely carried the smoke of hatred inside of them.

At first he had thought about attacking them, slashing their throats with his fathers knife but he quickly buried the thought into the depths of his mind, once he started to realize that he was outnumbered for one and still desperately needed to find Maja. They would take him to wherever they had taken her.

Or so he hoped.

They had been on the road for a few hours now and Loki's tears had dried up, because he feared his body had no more fluid to spare. His eyes were red and his lips puffy, he couldn't get the picture of his dead mother out of his head. All that he saw in front of him repeatedly was her lifeless body. It wouldn't leave his mind, no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't stop thinking about the last things he had said to her, how meaningless the words seemed now. He should have held her tightly, he should have told her he loved her dearly but he didn't.

What would happen to her now, he wondered? The brutes in front of him didn't even bother to carry her body aside - no they left her laying in front of the porch. They had left her body on the ground, where she was object to anything. It would be cold too, since the dark was dawning on them slowly and Loki couldn't bear the thought of his mother being cold. He wanted to run back and hug her tightly. 

But she was dead. 

He had told himself this one thing, many times over the past few hours. She was dead. He had held her corpse in his very arms. 

And still couldn't fathom wether this was reality or not, it was too painful to be a dream, had carried on for way too long and the time passed the more he feared it was not. 

The only thing he was truly certain of, was that he needed to find Maja and save her from these beasts.

The soldiers in front of him, that had tied him to the saddle of one of their horses which they were leading away had completely forgotten about him it seemed. They didn't even bother looking back or checking to see if he was still holding up with them. Maybe they had done this to many like him and it didn't even matter to them. They were now talking about what they intended to eat later and it just made Loki sick. They had murdered his… mother. And now they were talking about lunch.

Had her death not fazed them at all?

Had it meant nothing.

Did she die for nothing? 

These were monsters he was following and he would make sure they would suffer the same fate his mother had, only a thousand times more painful and at his very hands. 

"I wonder what Thor will say to all of this" one of the soldiers questioned and Loki caught the words, sharp like a blade.

Thor? Who might that be, he wondered. Whoever it was, it seemed to be someone of importance. 

"He won't even have time to care about it. The man has got a whole planet to occupy," the soldier next to him laughed. 

"Well ye've got a point" replied the other.

Loki only stared emotionlessly into the distance. What were they referring to exactly? Who was Thor? 

After a while he saw a faint red in the distance. The closer they got, the clearer he saw what it was. 

The base, that the soldiers had been speaking of. In the midst of the dozens of tents, there was a fireplace that kept the soldiers warm. Oh how much he wished these fires would swallow them hole. 

Maja, was more important to him at the moment though. He hoped to see her soon. 

***

The soldiers had thrown Loki into one of the tents. His body hit the ground, as one of them crouched down besides him to undo the knots they had tied around his wrist. 

"Listen up boy, you sleep here tonight. Don't you dare cause any trouble or I will have your head" the man had grabbed Loki by his chin, which he released as soon as he had spoken the crude words by shoving him further into the ground. 

Loki didn't respond, merely gazed at the man darkly. He knew that he could easily grab the knife still hidden under his robes and have this man fall dead in a matter of seconds, but he was no fool. He needed to find Maja first. 

As soon as the man left he lifted his head up to look around, finding out that he was not alone here. A few other boys - five - around his age, were sitting near the end of the tent. They gave Loki a few questioning looks, but none of them really dared to speak.

Not until Loki used his arms to push himself into a sitting position and started to talk.

"Have you also... been taken here by the soldiers?" Loki asked hesitating and careful not to use the wrong words, while he rubbed his wrists that had deep, red imprints of the ropes left.

None of the boys seemed to want to answer, until one of them replied. "Yes," he simply said. He was skinny, not much older than Loki and had red hair, almost shoulder length which fit his small frame. His eyes were a shade of hazel that stung out. Upon a closer look, Loki could see that his clothes were completely torn and judging by the way he had his legs pulled towards his chest, he must have been freezing. 

"I see," Loki replied "how long have you been here?" 

"About a month" the redhead replied. 

Another wave of shock hit Loki, he gasped before he managed to find the words. "A month? What is even going on?" The boy furrowed his eyebrows in confusion when Loki seemed to have asked a rather benign thing. "I- I'm sorry. I must look crazy right now. I live... used to... live in Montgârd. It's not very populated and mother doesn't allow me to listen to radio much - and I … I came back from the waterfalls and mother was… my sister… I need to find her...-"

Thick tears swelled in his eyes as he struggled to form coherent sentences. Hot drops were soon running down his cheeks. Maybe he needed some more time to process everything, but it was exactly time that he lacked right now. 

Another one if the boys interrupted him before he could carry on with his rambling. He was built a bit leaner than the one before, with thick brown hair and a much healthier stance than most of the other boys, that had chimed in on the conversation curiously. 

"Someone… well a man of Jotunheim killed the queen of Asgard and they… are waging war on us, you might have not heard of it, since you live far into the land" the boy stood up and walked towards Loki, handing him some tissue that he had in his pockets. "I lived in Sardia, I too got here a few days ago. They found me and my uncle. They are basically hunting for anyone that's out there." 

Loki was not much informed about geography, but he remembered the map that he once stumbled upon while rummaging through his fathers belongings, thus he knew the names of most continents. Like Montgârd, Sardia was also somewhat deserted.

So they were at war. 

He knew it of course, but a part of him hoped that he was making the wrong assumptions and that it was actually all a misunderstanding, that the soldiers who had dragged him here were just a selected few for a special mission. 

That was not the case. This was war.

Útgarðar, the capital where about 99% of the population resided because of its ideal weather, would of course be attacked first. It only made sense that they got to his home so late. 

Perhaps, they would have not even found Loki and his family, if the soldiers hadn't been out for every sign of life. Loki reached out for the tissue, but he didn't know if it was enough to wipe the amount of tears that threatened to spill at any given moment.

"I need to find my sister" Loki managed to get out, voice pathetically unstable and shaky. He hated himself for being so weak. If he hadn't been this weak, perhaps he wouldn't have blacked out that morning and perhaps he would have reached his home in time and his mother and Maja would still be here with him right now. 

"They take the girls to Asgard" the boy quickly replied and Loki almost felt his heart shatter into thousand pieces. So that was why he hadn't seen a single female face when they brought him here, "don't worry, she's safe. They wouldn't harm girls. It is yourself, you should be worried about." 

He had endured all the way to get here and Maja was not even here? This all had to be a bad joke. 

"Why did they take them away?" Loki asked, looking up at the boy "will they take us to Asgard too?" 

"This battlefield is no place for little girls I suppose" the boy shrugged. "and if Thor thinks we'll be useful in Asgard, he will."

Upon hearing that name once again, the black haired boy shook his head in irritation. "Who is this Thor you all speak of?"

Loki heard one of the boys grunt. They were probably laughing at his lack of knowledge about the Asgardians. Ignorance is bliss they say, but Loki was not happy to say the least. 

The boy that took a few steps around in the tent. "Thor is the crown prince of Asgard, the one leading and currently winning this war." 

"So he is responsible… for all of this madness" Loki stated in disgust. 

"Or the mad man that killed the queen" the skinny redhead suddenly decided to jump back into the conversation. “If the queen was alive, this wouldn’t be happening now.”

If he wasn't so desperate for some acquaintances, Loki would have probably - under different circumstances - punched the boy square in the face. That was the most ridicioulus suggestion anyone had ever made. How could the death of one person ever justify an entire war. As Loki looked at the desperate faces of these boys, he just felt sick to his stomach. None of this was justified. This was not fair. 

"They're going to kill us all" Loki finally muttered, almost as if telling himself and accepting his fate. 

"Thor wouldn't allow it. He is a good man" the brown haired boy disagreed, but Loki wasn't up for any of this. 

If it wasn't for the misery he was in, Loki would grunt at that. As if these monsters, would care - Thor was their leading man and you could find out about the stance of an army through the worst amongst them.

He wondered what Maja was doing right now, whether she was scared or not. Had Maja witnessed how these beasts had slaughtered their mother? Loki wondered about her wellbeing.

If this so called prince truly was good, there would not be a pointless war.

"What do you know you fool! They killed my mother and they'll kill us too if they desire to do so" Loki hissed.

"They killed my uncle too, but I try to see a light somewhere in all of this" the boy answered quickly shutting Loki up. "Just try to sleep. Eat if you haven't," he pointed into the midst of the tent, where a few potatoes and pieces of bread was placed on a metall plate. The thought of food made him feel ill, let alone to actually digest it. It would end in Loki throwing up everywhere.

He sunk back down, feeling a bit bad about the tone of his voice. Perhaps he had been a tad too harsh with the boy who was simply trying to explain things to him. The brunette however, hadn’t minded it and gave him a sympathetic smile before he went back to sit in the corner he had been in beforr and the room fell silent again. Not that many were participating in the conversation anyway.

This would be a sleepless night, Loki could tell. 

A night full of thoughts consuming him. 

***


	3. I missed you

"Wake the hell up!" a soldier tore the piece of fabric hanging in front of their tore to the side and screamed into the tent. Some of the boys looked around in confusion as they had been ripped out of their sleep while Loki was still sitting eyes wide open. The dark circles under his eyes were more prevalent than they had ever been, not helping his already dark aura. 

He hadn't slept a blink. Instead he had plagued a few of the boys with more questions, until they had gently drifted off into their dreams. He found out, that the soldiers kept them here for labor. 

The boys here had been made to work for the Asgardians for the past few weeks. It didn't surprise Loki at all, but he did wonder how long they intended to be kept here, because everyone who knew the tiniest bit about Jodunheim, was that it was absolutely nothing compared to Asgard. This war wasn't even much of a war really, perhaps just a statement of what they were capable of doing, to the ones that dared disrupt their comfot.

So what kind of war was this really? Loki started to think, this was just an excuse to enslave more of the people here. 

"All of you, get in a line this very fucking second!" the soldier screamed even louder once he felt like they were taking too long. Loki only glared at him, not even budging. The soldier almost took notice of it, when the boy from the other day grabbed Loki and pulled him onto his feet while the rest of the boys gathered. 

"Don't be a fool" the brunette muttered under his breath. It was a warning and Loki grumbled a few words of displeasure back to him before he decided to quiet and follow the boys who were doing as they were told and stepped outside. It had been raining the previous day, which was why the entire place was muddy and disgusting and Loki felt nausea when he had to step into the soft soil beneath him. 

"What is your name Sardian boy?" Loki asked silently and the boy glanced up at him head hanging low. 

"Jonah. My name is Jonah. Yours?" he whispered. 

"I'm Loki" he replied. "Why are they making us stand in line?" 

The boy glanced around to make sure they weren't under the scrutiny of any of the soldiers. "The prince is returning."

Confusion arose inside of Loki as he too finally took his place at the end of the line, shoulder to shoulder next to Jonah. "But why do we have to stand in line?" he questioned silently. 

He noticed that there were more than the five boys he had met the other night, when they stood outside and everyone was made to leave their tents. Dozens of boys - most of them still half asleep, but too scared to seem even the slightest bit tired, standing on their two feet. 

"We are paying respect I guess. He is a prince after all" Jonah answered. 

"Who the hell is chit-chatting?" One of the soldiers hissed towards the boys and their conversation immediately died down. It had startled the very last bit of Loki's being.

Though Loki wanted to ask so many questions, a look upon Jonah's face revealed an almost begging expression for Loki to hush and so he did. None of the boys that were standing in line seemed to dare look up, except for Loki who was too far near the end of the line, to be caught by the soldiers. 

A thousand thoughts flooded his brain that filled with blanks he needed to fill. The more so, it was fury that entered his body. This prince, was one of the people responsible for what had happened to his mother. Responsible for his sister being god knows where now and as if all of that wasn't enough, he was made to bow to him along with all the other captives. 

It was infuriating, to say the least.

A few moments passed and already suspicious of whether the prince would even show up at all, Loki's expression turned even more sour by the second. He despised everyone here, especially these soldiers that were watching over them. He wanted to bathe in their blood. Whenever he was close to jumping one of them, however, he remembered that he still had to find his little Maja, had to get to her somehow. She only had him and Loki only had her left now. 

As horrifying as it was, the realization that his mother was gone now started to settle in slowly. He had to keep fighting for his sister, because his mother would have wished for nothing more. Loki shut his eyes closed because of how much it hurt to finally accept that. He hadn't slept a second, but instead spent the entire night tortured by the denial that he had then, along with the hope that all of this was a fraction of his imagination and unreal - but now he was grasping that that was simply not the case. This was real. And he needed to find Maja. 

It was the sound throaty roar of a horse and its heavy steps in the muddy grounds that put an end to all those thoughts. While everyone kept their gazes averted down, Loki looked at where the sound had come from and it lead him right to the entrance of the camp, where he had been dragged through the night before. 

The owner of the horse graciously climbed off of it, gave it a few pats on the head and then dragged him along as he walked inside. He was followed by a few other men - soldiers obviously - who had their eyes fixated on the man in front of them. They too jumped off of their horses, but they were stiff and almost uncomfortable in the vicinity of the man they were following. Loki had always been good at reading body-language and he could almost sense the awkwardness surrounding everyone. As soon as the man had stepped inside someone rushed to his side and took the horse the well-built guy was leading, to the back of the base. 

Unlike the soldiers, the blonde was much more relaxed. His posture was upright, excerting pride and he was built too well to be somewhere as dirty as these grounds. The short cut mane on his head and slight facial hair covering his face, gave him a very masculine look. Even though Loki couldn't see his body through the armor he was wearing, he just knew that this man was lacking of no muscles, contrary to Loki who barely had anything aside from skin and bones. There was a smile on his face as he was walking towards a man who seemed of higher esteem, much like him. 

"Thor!" the man exclaimed, with a bright smile as he opened his arms to hug the man. 

"Heimdall," Thor spoke and it was the first time Loki, who was watching the scene unfold in front of him very carefully, heard the man speak. His voice matched the rest of him, it was deep and echoing in the back of Loki's mind. He was far away from the man - from Thor, who he now knew as the crown prince - but he could imagine he smelled like a tree bark, musky and warm.

"It is good to see you again" the other man said when they ended the hug. Loki hadn't seen this many people in one place in a long time - the last time his father had taken him into the city was years ago and his mother never really cared much about anywhere other than their house - but even amidst all these people, Loki felt like it was only him and the crown prince. His mind had completely blocked out any other human being. Unexpectedly however, it was not the anticipated anger and hatred that had been boiling inside of his stomach for the past torturous day surging once again, it was... interest. 

He nearly gasped at his own reaction, eyes as wide as they could get. 

"Loki" Jonah jabbed an elbow into Loki's ribs, "keep your head low you fool" he warned silently and finally pulled Loki out of his trance.

In return Loki looked at him, baffled and seemingly incapable of comprehending words at a normal pace, until he finally understood what Jonah had said and looked down. He didn't know how to properly behave around royals, but he figured looking them right in the eyes was not a good idea. Otherwise everyone would be doing it right now, especially since this man - Thor - was quite the view. 

"It is good to be back" Loki heard the same deep tone speak. He guessed that the man Thor was talking to, Heimdall or whatever, was a general or maybe just a friend of the prince, but someone important either way. "How is my father doing?" 

"He is doing well Thor, but I must add he does miss you" Heimdall replied and they started walking, Loki stole a glance at them and saw that they were walking towards the biggest tent that was set up, located at his right "let us go inside, you surely are hungry."

The black haired boy looked back down at his feet knowing that Thor would pass him bye at any given moment. Much to his surprise the prince hadn't spared a glance at any of the boys. He hadn't mocked or even addressed them, as Loki had feared. 

Although Jonah had told him not to look up, he simply couldn't stop curiosity get a hold of him and once again raised his head. This time however he was caught right in the act, by none other than the prince who just happened to look his way as he passed. 

Loki froze when he stood in direct eye contact with the blonde. Instead of looking away he only stared ahead like a deer caught in the headlights. Panic set inside of him. Even the man walking next to Thor, the man called Heimdall, took notice of the situation, first looking at Thor then following his gaze which lead him right to Loki.

Jonah shifted slightly in his spot and Loki could tell that he was trying to send Loki a message - something along the lines of 'what the absolute hell are you doing'? Even some of the other boys seemed to have noticed the showdown in front of them. 

From the corner of his eyes the black haired boy could also see that every soldier in vicinity was glaring down at Loki, who was straight up looking into the eyes of a royal. A great crime, in the eyes of Asgardians.

Heimdall finally whispered something into Thor's ears, but Thor shook his head. He took an exit from the path he had initially been aiming for and walked over towards the boys - and the closer he got, towards Loki directly it seemed. This naturally sent him into an internal frenzy, but he still couldn't get himself to look down. He was quite literally frozen in his spot. 

He was in such big trouble now, he feared.

"What is your name, boy?" Thor demanded and stopped inches away from Loki, who had not looked away despite the threathening aura that was oozing from Thors being.

"Loki" the shorter boy replied quickly once he managed to move his lips. “My name is Loki.”

One of the soldiers to his left, clenched their hand around the sword around his hips. How dare a commoner - a Jodunhrimer on top of it - not refer to the prince with his righteous titles. Thor however raised a hand when he noticed the action, signaling the man to stop.

He was smirking. 

"Do you have something to tell me, Loki?" Thor's tone was deep in authority but laced with a hint of mockery. He probably thought it was funny, the way that Loki - as small and unthreatening as he looked - was being so brave. 

"Yes" Loki replied, with all the guts he could possibly find in his little body. 

***


End file.
